GROUPS AND SINGLE DECORATIONS FOR GALLANTRY
For after only another twelve minutes of battle, Prince of Wales had had enough. She had been hit by four of Bismarck’s heavy shells
and three of Prinz Eugen’s. The compass platform, echo-sounding gear, radar office, aircraft recovery crane, fore secondary armament
director, all the boats and several cabins had been wrecked. The shell that hit the crane landed just as the Walrus aircraft was about to
be launched to spot the fall of shot, the launching officer’s hand was in the air: the wings were peppered with splinters, pilot and
observer scrambled out, the plane was ditched over the side to avoid the risk of fire. The same splinters that blinded Esmond Knight
also pierced a fresh-water tank, loosed a flood of water on to survivors of the bridge and men on the signal deck below. One 15-inch
and two 8-inch shells hit the ship below the waterline, let in 400 tons of sea water. Another 8-inch shell found its way into a shell
handling room, whizzed about several times without going off or hitting anyone, took two men to throw it over the side.’
Captain Leach had rightly concluded that it was better to withdraw and save a valuable ship, rather than continue in an unequal
contest in which his battered command was unlikely to have a telling effect on the enemy. Pursuit concludes:
‘So after having fired eighteen salvoes, Prince of Wales made smoke and disengaged to the south-east. As she turned, the shell ring of Y
turret jammed, rendered four guns in it inoperable. Her casualties were two officers and eleven men killed, one officer and eight men
wounded. The time was 6.13 a.m., just twenty-one minutes after Admiral Holland in Hood had so proudly led his squadron in to
battle.’
Richards was awarded the D.S.M., one of four crew members of Prince of Wales so honoured. But, as fate would have it, he would
shortly be killed in the next biggest calamity to befall the Royal Navy in the 1939-45 War - the loss of his ship and the Repulse in the
Far East in December 1941. Meanwhile, he would have been present in Operation “Halberd”, an important Malta convoy, and on the
occasion Prince of Wales conveyed Winston Churchill to Newfoundland for his secret meeting with Roosevelt, from which emerged
the Atlantic Charter, signed on 12 August 1941.
The loss of Prince of Wales and Repulse to sustained attack by over 80 Japanese aircraft in December 1941 needs no further elaboration
here, except to say Richards was one of around 750 officers and men who lost their lives on that occasion. He has no known grave and
is commemorated on the Plymouth Memorial and, as verified by Seedie’s Roll of Naval Honours & Awards 1939-1959, his D.S.M. was
sent to his next of kin - his widow, Elizabeth; sold with copied research, including Captain Leach’s official “Damage Report” following
the Bismarck action, with accompanying copied images of some eye-opening scenes of said damage.
829
A rare Second World War Normandy operations D.S.M. awarded to Able Seaman D. E. Halladay, Royal Navy, who
was decorated for the recovery and destruction of an enemy torpedo in “Juno” anchorage: a crew member of Landing
Craft Gun (Large) No. 1, he almost certainly went on to witness further action in the assault on Walcheren in
November 1944, on which occasion No. 1 was sunk
DISTINGUISHED SERVICE MEDAL, G.VI.R. (A.B. D. E. Halladay, C/JX. 353658), extremely fine £2000-2500
D.S.M. London Gazette 13 March 1945. The original recommendation states:
‘For the recovery of a circling torpedo from the centre of Juno anchorage adjacent to “Cap Tourane”, and for towing it away and
destroying it by gunfire.’
Donald Edward Halladay, a native of Northampton, was serving in L.C.G. (L.) No. 1 at the time of the above related deeds, the
recommendation for his award being dated 5 August 1944. Landing Craft Guns (Large) were armed with two 4.7-inch guns, manned by
Royal Marines, and several 20mm. Oerlikons, a formidable “punch” for such a small craft, though their high velocity guns were limited
in coping with targets in dead ground as a result of their relatively low trajectory.
Fortunately for posterity’s sake, one of Halladay’s shipmates, Richard Blyth, wrote an account of No. 1’s part in the Normandy
operations, an account that also makes direct reference to the recovery and destruction of the enemy torpedo referred to in the above
recommendation (see the B.B.C’s World War 2 People’s War website for full details):
‘When we got to Sword Beach [on D-Day], it seemed as though every gun ever made was firing at the same time. You could hear the
15-inch warship shells going overhead, which sounded like a steam train. I could hear the Belfast’s 6-inch guns fired in anger and L.C.
G. (L.) 1 was firing at the gun emplacements that were attacking our forces going ashore. Having a flat bottom and shallow draught, we
were able to get quite close ashore, so we could see more where the firing was coming from. Our skipper was quite a huntsman, as
every time we went into action he blew his hunting horn and said “Tally Ho!”
We were firing for nearly four days continuously, until the beachhead was well established. We would re-arm our craft then go along
the beach where we were needed and then started firing again, sometimes 5 or 6 miles inland. We had a Field Officer ashore who was
watching the shortfall and who sent back corrections to the gun crews.
As we progressed we came to Le Havre, where the Germans were hauled up of a night time, and we had what was called the “Trout
Line” which was a line of L.C.G’s and L.C.F’s in line from Le Havre to Arromanches. At night, “Jerry” came out to cause havoc on one-
man torpedoes; they also had high explosive remote controlled motor boats, with which they tried to get us. They moved at about 35
knots.
One day we had been doing an indirect shoot for the Army, and as we arrived back at the harbour of Arromanches, our look-out saw a
spent German torpedo floating in the harbour - towards the end the Germans adapted the torpedoes to float instead of sink, so that it
acted like a mine. A Marine Officer and two sailors [Halladay and another] got in a small boat and went out to it. One of the sailors
went over the side with a rope, dived down and secured it, and swam back to the small boat and then back to our craft and towed it
out of the harbour for about a mile, then blew it up with gun fire. The sailors were recommended for the Distinguished Service Medal
(D.S.M.). When we got back in the harbour all the ships and craft saluted us with sirens and klaxons blaring.
We went out on D-Day and came back in September, having done 4 hours on, 4 hours off, 24/7. At that time we had a refit and more
exercises, then the Support Squadron Eastern Flank (S.S.E.F.) was formed and we went out to Walcheren, Holland.’
Richard Blyth later submitted an account of No. 1’s part in this operation on 1 November 1944, a disastrous action in terms of losses
for the S.S.E.F., nine craft being sunk and nine others seriously damaged, with a total loss of 172 killed and 200 wounded. But the
Walcheren landings will also be remembered for the great gallantry of the landing craft crew, subsequent Honours & Awards including
a D.S.O., 23 D.S.Cs, 2 C.G.Ms and 27 D.S.Ms. Of No. 1’s fate, Blyth states:
‘In the Northern Group, L.C.G. (L.) No. 1 went in with her guns blazing independently and closed to 600 yards in spite of being hit
three times by shells. Now she got hit several more times and then came the big one, which hit the bridge - there was a tremendous
explosion. Our skipper, Lieutenant Ballard, R.N.R., was wounded. The shell took the compass from his hand before it exploded, then
another shell blasted away the compass pedestal and voice-pipe. All the officers were now wounded and the craft came to a stop with
two dead and 20 wounded. The survivors were rescued by L.C.S. 510. L.C.G. (L.) No. 17 tried to take No. 1 in tow, but the stricken
craft sank. The skipper of No. 17, Lieutenant Scammell, received wounds coming to No. 1’s assistance, wounds from which he died.’
Halladay received his D.S.M. at a Buckingham Palace investiture held on 6 November 1945.
www.dnw.co.uk
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